Mother
A mother is the female parent of a family. In many cultures, the mother is considered an essential element in raising a child of either sex to adulthood. In mainstream media In mainstream Smurfs media, Smurfette acts in the role of a mother to Baby Smurf in both the comic books and the cartoon show, while Nanny Smurf has a more grandmotherly role in the cartoon show. There are also other characters in the stories who appear as actual mothers or act in the role of mothers. Empath: The Luckiest Smurf stories In Smurf society in the EMPATH: The Luckiest Smurf story series, a female Smurf who becomes a Mama Smurf through the production of an offspring is expected to show the positive traits of an adult female Smurf, which include gentleness, empathy, resourcefulness, fidelity to her spouse and children, wisdom, patience, and uncompromising love. She endeavors to make her house a place that is a safe haven for her husband and children to come home to. She helps the child understand that there are limits in society that he cannot go beyond and reinforces those limits in the child's personal life. In the absence of a Papa Smurf, the Mama Smurf may also act in the role of a priest to call upon blessings and protection from Mother Nature and Father Time and to help her children understand the moral and spiritual consequences of their actions, instilling virtues of godliness such as purity, mercy, and charity. For young female Smurfs, the Mama Smurf gives them an example of femininity that they can model themselves from, while for young male Smurfs, the Mama Smurf gives them an example of the type of female Smurf that they would want to marry someday. A Mama Smurf generally raises a child until he reaches 100 years of age, where at that point he is considered an adult Smurf and thus expected to be part of the village's functioning society as a member of it. At that age, young male adult Smurfs usually build their own house while young female adult Smurfs remain with their parents until they are married or until their parents pass away. Mama Smurfs are very instrumental in preparing their daughters to become the type of female Smurf that a male Smurf wants to marry, with the Papa Smurf preventing any male Smurf from marrying his daughter until they have his approval. With the passing of Papa Smurf's generation of fellow Smurfs around 50 years after Empath's birth, he was given de facto parental control of 97 young male Smurfs with no female Smurf of his age to act as a Mama Smurf. Despite the lack of a maternal role model, Papa Smurf managed to raise the young Smurflings with cooperative help from the children until they were of a young adult age. Smurfette would become a Mama Smurf with the birth of her daughter Psycheliana, whom Empath had fathered. Eventually with the meeting of the Smurfettes on Smurfette Island, they would also become Mama Smurfs themselves. Category:Roles